Bouncing back from last week’s uneven “Jewpacabra,” SOUTH PARK kicks butt with “Butterballs”, a hilarious take on school bullying and the media’s exploitation of it.

Some of this is directly tied to the documentary BULLY which just hit theaters and focuses on actual bullying happening in our public schools. One of the most obvious things creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone bring up with this episode is that by making a film about bullying and then putting the bullied kid as the face of the movie on the posters, opens him up to even more bullying.

Didn’t think of it that way – leave it to Parker and Stone to point out the super obvious.

The crux of the story focuses on Butters finding himself the brunt of bullying, he’s told to fight back or at least tell someone about it. So he goes to his grandma, who we find out is the one bullying him. This hilarious turn of events provides some of the most hilarious laughs in this episode – including Butters putting on his Captain Chaos outfit to fight back only to find his grandma in her own creepy super villain outfit (looking a bit like a cross-dressing S&M Magneto).

Meanwhile, the school is upset that bullying is going on and enlists Bucky Bailey’s Bully Busting to help give the students a chance to stand up and make a video about bullying. Stan is in charge, and it turns into one long tracking shot musical number with Butters in the center. When a big movie studio wants to release it, more bullying occurs until the end result includes Jesus bullying the studio exec not to release it, while Stan ends up in San Diego jacking off (don’t ask).

Strange, and surreal with Monty Python non-sequitur flourishes throughout, “Butterballs” has many highlights including the grandma/Butters battles. I love how she pokes him under the dinner table with a fork (unknown to his parents what’s actually going on) and I love the surreal, deranged speech Butters gives his grandma at the end about how her life is almost over and he’ll visit her in a hospital as she’s dying knowing that she’s almost dead.

It’s brilliant and funny and wrong, but the best SOUTH PARK’s always are.

The other recurring theme is how everyone seems to bully someone else in an attempt to stop bullying. The theme song also includes the hilarious line “Make Bullying Kill Itself.”

The episode, not really knowing how to end, sends Stan to San Diego where he gets naked and masturbates in the streets to a very funny and catchy song. While this gag was set up throughout by Kyle, and I’m unaware of what they’re trying to parody, just for sheer silliness and very funny animation, it gets tons of points.

Perhaps the only negative, is that I would have liked to have seen more grandma bullying, but that’s a minor quibble.

It’s so strange how a SOUTH PARK season can be so polarizing to fans. Episodes I’ve liked, others have hated while an episode like “Jewpacabra” that I didn’t like, people loved. It’s the nature of SOUTH PARK, and probably what has kept it on the air for so long. It has so many flavors, and such flashes of brilliance, you can’t get enough of it whether it’s a good or a bad week.

EDITOR’S NOTE UPDATE: Thank you to all the readers for pointing out the San Diego reference being a Kony video. I sensed they were parodying something I wasn’t aware of (and yes, when it comes to people doing crazy, obscene things in public, I do tend to live under a rock and avoid them). As always, the beauty of SOUTH PARK is making fun of things people are aware of and not aware of, but making it enjoyable for all regardless of if you’re fully aware of the targets or not.

Comments:

The jacking off in San Diago was a parody of Jason Russell, the director of the KONY 2012 video, who did just that weeks after the rise to fame once the video went viral. I also felt that a good point in the episode tonight was a jab at the petition to lower the rating of the movie Bully so students could watch it where Kyle called out that if Stan want every kid to watch the movie and be educated so badly, he should release it free on the internet.
TL;DR – Kony director jacked off; if everyone needs to see Bully, it should be free online

The reference to masturbating in San Diego is a parody of the Kony 2012 video’s director going batty and masturbating in San Diego. Butter’s going nuts on Dr. Oz is in reference to Kony ending up being a terrible murderer, much to the astonishment of the film-makers.

The jerkin’ off in San Diego is a reference to Kony 2012 video and it’s maker, Jason Russell, who had a nervous breakdown shortly after his video became widespread and he ended up naked into streets of San Diego where he publicly masturbated.

they are trying to parody the founder of invisible children masturbating in public after he claims to have succumbed to the ‘overwhelming pressure’ faced from the number of hits his kony2012 (which i thought this episode was trying to parody as well) video got.

“While this gag was set up throughout by Kyle, and I’m unaware of what they’re trying to parody, just for sheer silliness and very funny animation, it gets tons of points.”
You’re unaware of what they’re trying to parody? Stan’s entire story is that of Jason Russell, the man behind the Kony 2012 movie. It appears you’ve missed the entire point of the episode, congratulations.

Stan jacking it is a spoof of the Kony 2012 guy master sting In public after the “facts” stated in his video were checked and turned out to be innacurate if not completely made up.

My favorite line was Kyle asking Stan if it was so important everyone needed to see it why not release it free on the Internet- going after the movie studio refusing to take a rated R rating saying the movie needed to be seem by all children.